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Web Page, Project Designer

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The Web page of the Project Designer enables you to set start behavior, server settings, and debugging properties for Web pages. You can specify how Visual Studio interprets the command to run a Web page when you select Start Debugging or Start Without Debugging on the Debug menu (or when you press F5 or CTRL+F5). The options on the Web page are local settings for the selected project that are not shared with other users.

The Web page properties can only be applied to projects that were created by using the ASP.NET Web Application template. A project created by using this template is also known as a Web application project. ASP.NET Web application projects provides the same conceptual Web-project approach as Visual Studio .NET 2003, but with all the new features of Visual Studio 2005.

Note

The options on this page apply only when you are testing a Web site in Visual Studio; they do not apply when you are deploying a Web site to a production server. For more information, see Deployment (How Do I in Visual Web Developer).

To access the Web page

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the name of a Web site project and then click Properties.

    The Property Pages window appears.

  2. Click the Web tab.

Tasks

UI Elements

Start Action

The Start Action group enables you to specify which page or process Visual Studio starts when you run the Start command.

  • Current Page
    Specifies that Visual Studio will start the current page in the default browser.

  • Specific Page
    Specifies that Visual Studio will run the default page when you start the Web site, even if you are currently editing another page.

    Note

    Alternatively, you can right-click a page in Solution Explorer and select Set As Start Page.

  • Start external program
    Specifies an alternative program that Visual Studio will run instead of starting the browser. The alternative program must have an .exe file name extension, and you must specify the full path of this .exe file.

  • Command line arguments
    Specifies command-line options or other values that will be passed to the external program.

  • Working directory
    Specifies a full path of a working directory in which the external program will start. The path must exist.

  • Start URL
    Specifies a starting URL to open. This option is typically used by Web service applications so that you can start a different Web site that will call your Web service.

  • Don't open a page. Wait for a request from an external application.
    Specifies that Visual Studio should start your project in a Web server and wait for another application to make a request. This is useful for debugging Web service applications.

Servers

The Servers group enables you to specify which Web server will be used when you test pages.

  • Use Visual Studio Development Server
    Specifies that Visual Studio will use the Visual Studio Development Server to serve the Web pages.

  • Auto-assign Port
    Specifies a random HTTP port on the development computer. This HTTP port is used to start and run the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server.

    By default, the Auto-assign Port is assigned. Although the HTTP port is initially chosen at random, Visual Studio will try to use the same port every time that the Web application starts.

  • Specific port
    Specifies the HTTP port number used to start and run the Web application project by using the built-in Visual Studio Development Server. This HTTP port number can be changed if the port is already being used, or if you want to specifically test and run the application by using a specific port number.

  • Virtual path
    Specifies the virtual path of your Web site. When using the Visual Studio Development Server. The default is the Web server root, which is indicated by a forward slash (/).

  • NTLM Authentication
    Specifies that NTLM authentication is required for requests to the server. By default, NTLM authentication is turned off.

    Selecting this check box helps prevent other users on this computer from accessing your Web site and from using your identity and security permissions to run code.

  • Enable Edit and Continue
    Specifies that the built-in Visual Studio Development Server will allow editing of code-behind and stand-alone class files in your application without restarting the debug session. However, editing inline code in an .aspx page or an .ascx file is not allowed. If you edit the Web.config file while debugging, Visual Studio displays a warning message. Saving changes to the Web.config file stops the debugger from loading old assemblies during an application-domain reset.

  • Use IIS Web server
    Specifies that Visual Studio will run your application on the local IIS Web server instead of the Visual Studio Development Server.

  • Project URL
    Specifies the URL, which is located on the IIS Web server, that points to this Web application.

  • Create Virtual Directory
    Creates an IIS virtual directory which points to the root folder of the Web application.

  • Override application root URL
    Specifies an alternative path for the application root URL. Use this option if your Web application root is not the root of your project.

Debuggers

The Debuggers group enables you to specify which debuggers will be available when you test pages. When a debugger is loaded, it can include debugging engines for different types of code. The options you select here determine which debugging engines are loaded.

Note

Each debugging engine that you load requires memory and affects the performance of debugging overall. In general, you should specify only the debugging engines that you need.

  • ASP.NET
    Select this check box to specify that the debugger for managed code is loaded whenever you start the debugger. Use this debugger to debug the server-side code in your pages and in any .NET Framework components that are called from your page.

    Note

    Processes to be debugged must be compiled with debugging information.

    If you clear this check box, Visual Studio starts the debugger but does not try to retrieve process information, from IIS or the Visual Studio Development Server, and make it available to the debugger. However, you can still debug client script in the page.

    For more information, see Debugging Web Pages Overview.

  • Native Code
    Select this check box to specify that the debugger for native (unmanaged) code is loaded whenever you start the debugger. This option is useful if your Web site calls a component (for example, a COM component) that is written in an unmanaged language, such as C++.

    If you clear this check box, you can debug managed code, but the debugger will skip any calls to unmanaged code.

    For more information, see Debugging Native Code.

  • SQL Server
    Select this check box to specify that the debugger for SQL Server stored procedures is loaded whenever you start the debugger.

    For more information, see Debugging SQL.

See Also

Concepts

Web Application Projects Overview

Other Resources

Projects, User Interface Elements

Introduction to ASP.NET Web Applications in Visual Studio